Interests:Almost anything to do with the Western Front, dating from research into the war dead of Maghull and Ainsdale. Currently a tour guide, and loving it.

Posted 22 January 2012 - 10:40 PM

Thank you Billy!
I read the book as fiction, and was looking forward to watching the BBC adaptation in the same light.
Yes....there are some slow bit near the beginning, but then, the same is in the book, and it sets the scene rather well.
I usually find flash-backs annoying, but in this case I can't see any other way of doing it...and again, it is following the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's first half, and look forward to the second, when I get back from near Arras.
I expect that the pedants will soon be here to pick holes in some of it...but....quite honestly, I really don't care if Capt Whoever was wearing the wrong collar dogs or whatever....this was fiction, and also good television.

Since we are debating who is in this classic, wasnít that Timothy Spall with his head under water about 10 minutes in? if it was that must be the shortest role he has ever played. Mind you just have to laugh donít you?

Ok a proper film review is needed.
The gory bits were good the boobs were good , not sure about the tree bit. The rest was boring to say the least and I too could neither hear a thing, nor for that matter read the subtiles as i do not have a 500ft Plasma TV

Welshdoc you are correct a serious and mature approach plus a rational and constructive debate is required. So on that basis yes the French Baps were OK but a bit of makeup to cover what I suppose was a line of Moles would have been in order.

Most enjoyable, good depiction of the mining and of his mistaken death. it's been quite a while since I read the book and I wondered how they would do it - it worked well. I don't like the actor who plays Wraysford and didn't think he added much to this. Thought Jospeh Mawle who played Firebrace was excellent though.

Interests:Almost anything to do with the Western Front, dating from research into the war dead of Maghull and Ainsdale. Currently a tour guide, and loving it.

Posted 22 January 2012 - 10:48 PM

Ok a proper film review is needed. The gory bits were good the boobs were good , not sure about the tree bit. The rest was boring to say the least and I too could neither hear a thing, nor for that matter read the subtiles as i do not have a 500ft Plasma TV

I was just being a bit delicate.....so I agree on both points....including the gory bits!

Interests:I am a Vancouver lawyer, prosecuting criminal offences. My interest tends to focus on the Somme and in particular the attacks of the first day on Beaumont Hamel and Thiepval, the Malins film and the November battles around Beaucourt. I have visited the Somme and Ypres on several occasions and Afghanistan (for work purposes)

Posted 22 January 2012 - 11:59 PM

The reading of this thread is sufficient for me to conclude, sight unseen, that this is a must-see. I base this conclusion upon the following components, crucial to any Great War drama:

Never read the book, and I thoroughly enjoyed this first dramatised part - didn't spot any glaring errors, but, there again, I'm no pedantic expert (nor want to be, thank God - I've always been of the opinion that the vast majority of those who fought would not be seething with sarcastic anger, nor scathing in their condemnation, if they, or their fallen comrades, are depicted wearing the wrong buttons/cap-badges/webbing etc.). I will give my personal opinion on the storyline/production/its comment on the war etc. after watching the second instalment next week - but, apart from the poor sound quality, so far so good.

I'm so pleased that it wasn't just me struggling with the sound. I'm a bit "luggy" anyway and at times to watch the telly and to catch any quiet conversation the volume has to go up considerably, or especially when the dreaded incidental music starts which drowns out all speech. The film wasn't too bad though I think I could have played the leading man quite well just staring into space. I wouldn't have liked to do the sex scenes though...well not with everyone watching!! I'll probably read the book now.
Lionboxer

PS Would the Germans in the tunnel have worn Picklehaub's? I was just thinking about headroom!! Possibly the same for the Tommies?

I didn't enjoy the book much. But I wanted to watch it with an open mind. Rather like a lot of other BBC period dramas of late it is sumptuous to look at but seemingly lacking any substance beyond that. After a friend asked what I thought and I said pretty much the same as Alan above...too much staring off into the distance.

I am running a Birdsong/poetry tour to the Somme this week - annual event for sixth formers who are studying the book. The statement about doing it as fact is ludicrous.

Same to raise the same old chestnut as Warhorse but it seems that some people regard Birdsong as history,so much so that in my travels I have encounterd school trips doing "Birdsong" tours of the front as if it were a book of historical fact. Nothing wrong with fiction as long as it isn't treated as history.

Interests:Researching the Great War fallen of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (Inst)

Posted 23 January 2012 - 08:58 AM

It was certainly good to see tunneling warfare portrayed on screen - but as for the peactime scenes - a comment I read on another website sums it up for me - "the endless long soulful looks of Eddie Redmayne simply looking gormless were excrutiating"

Thank you Billy!I read the book as fiction, and was looking forward to watching the BBC adaptation in the same light.Yes....there are some slow bit near the beginning, but then, the same is in the book, and it sets the scene rather well.I usually find flash-backs annoying, but in this case I can't see any other way of doing it...and again, it is following the book.I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's first half, and look forward to the second, when I get back from near Arras.I expect that the pedants will soon be here to pick holes in some of it...but....quite honestly, I really don't care if Capt Whoever was wearing the wrong collar dogs or whatever....this was fiction, and also good television.

It was certainly good to see tunneling warfare portrayed on screen - but as for the peactime scenes - a comment I read on another website sums it up for me - "the endless long soulful looks of Eddie Redmayne simply looking gormless were excrutiating"

Interests:10th Royal Hussars (PWO), 11th Hussars (PAO), The Royal Hussars (PWO), The King's Royal Hussars

Posted 23 January 2012 - 09:05 AM

I've not read the book (though Mrs B has); indeed, the only one of Faulks' books I've read is the Girl at the Lion d'Or (I hope I got that right), which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I was able to approach this with an open mind.

I thought it was excellent - elegaic is the word I'd use. In a strange way, the peacetime scenes seemd to me almost as good as Le Grand Meaulnes for summing-up a lost world.

I can forgive the small faux pas in the war scenes, but as an adaptation of a literary work, I have to say it held me gripped. I can't wait for next week's instalment.

There - I actually liked something on the TV. There's a first. Now I need to go and see War Horse (interestingly, today's Tottygraph reviewer compared Birdsong with - and I quote - Spielberg's "disappointing" film )